| Plot Summary of The Winter Widow |
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"Susan Donovan , a cynical San Francisco cop, probably didn't believe in love at first sight - until she happened to meet Daniel Wren at a police convention. The two wed quickly, and Susan makes the difficult decision to leave S.F. and move to Hampstead, Kansas, the small town where Daniel is the Chief of Police.
About six weeks later, Daniel is felled by a sniper's bullet. Suddenly widowed, alone in a new place and in the mood for revenge and closure, Susan somehow manages to convince Hampstead's mayor to name her interim chief, so she can investigate Daniel's murder.
Susan knows all eyes will be on her because she is an outsider and a woman, and must earn the respect of her fellow officers she now has under her.
Before long, she has another murder on her hands: that of Lucille Guthman, a young woman who worked for the local newspaper, found strangled to death in a hotel room. Susan suspects that Lucille's own investigations into Daniel's death and other possible clandestine activities in the town made her a danger to the killer.
But with little progress being made, the mayor of Hampstead threatens to remove Susan from her position. Susan must put aside her fears of failure and grief in order to get to the bottom of things before she is yanked from the job. While the rookie chief makes mistakes and stumbles several times, her single-minded pursuit of justice makes up for her inexperience. In the end Susan must play a dangerous game of hide-and-seek against a killer who will do anything to elude capture, with a rifle in his hands."
tesubcalle, Resident Scholar
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| Review Analysis of The Winter Widow |
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Our unique search engine provides a wealth of detail about books by breaking them down into many different literary elements, all of which are searchable (click here).
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Composition of Book
descript. of violence and chases - 10%
Planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 60%
Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 20%
How society works & physical descript. (people, objects, places) - 10%
Tone of story
- Dry-cynical
How difficult to spot villain?
- Difficult, but some clues given
Time/era of story:
- 1980's-1999
What % of story relates directly
to the mystery, not the subplot?
- 70%
Kind of investigator
- police procedural, American
Kid or adult book?
- Adult or Young Adult Book
Any non-mystery subplot?
- life in small town
Crime Thriller
Yes
Murder Mystery (killer unknown)
Yes
Main Character
Gender
- Female
Profession/status:
- police/lawman
Age:
- 20's-30's
How much violence does he/she use?
- just the right amount
Ethnicity/Race
- White/American
How sensitive is this character?
- hard edged
Sense of humor
- Cynical sense of humor
Intelligence
- Average intelligence
Main Adversary
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in:
- a little/some
How sensitive is this character?
- middling sensitive to others' feelings
Setting
United States
Yes
Small town?
Yes
Style
Part of a series?
Yes
Person
- mostly 3rd
Accounts of torture and death?
- moderately detailed references to deaths
How many deaths?
- 2
Unusual forms of death
- asphyxiation
- perforation--bullets
Unusual form of death?
Yes
Amount of dialog
- significantly more dialog than descript
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